Having taken up the challenge of getting married last year, we have decided on doing another one this year - climbing Ben Nevis for the Alzheimers Society!

Marie's lovely dad Jim was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in November 2007 and her Uncle Tony just a few months after with Vascular Dementia.  They are both cared for by their wives who do an amazing job of looking after their husbands and coping with the effects, worries and emotions that living with a person with dementia brings.

The term 'dementia' is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is damaged by specific diseases. These diseases include Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Someone with dementia may have difficulties remembering, solving problems or concentrating. Vascular dementia is a type of dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia affecting around 417,000 people in the UK. Alzheimer's disease was first described by a German neurologist Dr Alois Alzheimer. Alzheimer's disease is a physical disease of the brain. During the course of the disease plaques and tangles develop in the brain leading to the death of brain cells.

We have decided to climb Ben Nevis as a personal challenge as we both aren't really big fans of excercise and much prefer eating nice food, watching telly and occasionally making people laugh!  And climbing a mountain is nothing compared to the challenge of living with and caring for someone with these terrible diseases.

We need to raise a minimum of £1500 for the cost of our trip and minimum sponsorship, so smashing that target would be an amazing acheivement, but we need your help to do it.

Please, please please donate to this page as little or as much as you can - dont forget if you're a UK tax payer to donate Gift Aid as well as that is extra free money from the goverment that can go towards the vital work that the Alzheimers society do.

You can find out more about the work of the Alzheimers Society at http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

 

Thank you very very very much

Marie & Carl